Genevieve Brophy (left) and Anna Fuchs, employees of the main central office of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co., sit at the new Hotel Winthrop switchboard surrounded by 300 desk telephones. After the telephones and switchboard were installed, the Hotel Winthrop became the first Tacoma hotel to have a telephone in every room. The switchboard was located on the roof garden floor of the hotel in a private room set apart from public view. It was staffed by four young women and chief operator Mrs. Johanna Hicks, who maintained the hotel's service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (TNT 5/16/1925, pg 3) negative A1001-0, TPL-9971

Hotel Winthrop (Tacoma); Telephones--1920-1930; Telephone switchboards; Brophy, Genevieve; Fuchs, Anna;

ca. 1935. Exterior view of Winthrop Hotel from the southwest. Building by W.E. Stoddard and Roland Borhek, Associated Architects, 1924. (filed with Argentum)

Hotel Winthrop (Tacoma); Hotels--Tacoma--1930-1940;

Monarch Club banquet at the Winthrop Hotel, Presidential Suite. The Presidential Suite was the most elaborate of the 24 "parlor" suites in the Winthrop. The living room was finished in Philippine Mahogany with paneled plastered walls and special lighting fixtures. (WSHS)

Hotel Winthrop (Tacoma); Hotels--Tacoma--1930-1940; Monarch Club (Tacoma); Banquets--Tacoma--1930-1940;

ca. 1939. Elevated view of the Hotel Winthrop, circa 1939. By this time, the Winthrop had been open for 14 years, celebrating its grand opening on May 16, 1925. The eleven story hotel was named after explorer and writer Theodore Winthrop whose book "The Canoe and the Saddle" helped popularize the Northwest.

Hotel Winthrop (Tacoma); Hotels--Tacoma--1930-1940;

By March 1st, 1924, Tacoma's old Chamber of Commerce Building at 773 Broadway had been demolished and work had begun on the foundation of the future Hotel Winthrop. The eleven story hotel, built by the Citizen's Hotel Corporation, was dedicated in May of 1925. With the chamber building gone, and the new hotel not yet built, this photograph provides an excellent view of the Bostwick Block, 755-71 Saint Helens, as it looked in March of 1924. At that time it was undergoing extensive remodeling; in July the exterior was covered with Duralite.

Hotel Winthrop (Tacoma)--Construction; Hotels--Tacoma--1920-1930;